22 THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED pt. ii. 



First, I think I may fairly ask why ' some ' say that 

 each root ends in a sponge ? and why other some say, 

 in a capillary stoma ? In either case have they seen 

 the fact ? Have some seen one of these bodies at the 

 end of a root ? and the other some, the other of these 

 bodies there ? Or are these two bodies so precisely 

 alike that one cannot be distinguished from the other ? 

 To my eye, there is not much resemblance between a 

 sponge and a capillary stoma ; and any one who agrees 

 with me here will, I think, also agree that in no science 

 except botany would this extraordinarily loose mode 

 of st.ating facts be tolerated. These, however, are not 

 the facts which I have at present to deal with ; but 

 with the great fact asserted by all physiologists, which 

 I have given in Eichard's words, — that a radish with its 

 end only in water will live and grow ; with all but its 

 end in water, will die. 



In physiology, as in many other things, we are apt 

 to find — 



That witnesses like watches go, 

 Just as they 're set, too fast or slow ; 



and certainly my testimony directly contradicts this 

 Experi- double asscrtiou. I assert, that if the end only of the 



ments in p t i i i 



proof. main root of a radish newly taken up from the ground 

 is placed in water, in a room, but out of the sun, even 

 to the length of an inch, the radish and its leaves will 

 instantly die ; precisely the same, that is just as quickly, 

 as if no part of the plant were in water. On the 

 other hand, if all the radish is placed in water except 



